Travel is still a relatively small portion of the overall Groupon business, although the segment notched solid revenue growth in the third quarter. The issue for Groupon in travel is whether a standalone app will make much of a difference as the popularity of flash sales seems to be diminishing.

Groupon and Expedia have downgraded their partnership. Whether it was a mutual decision as both parties claim or push came to shove, it was clear that these two big brands weren't going to smoothly co-exist forever.

This is just further confirmation of something we already knew: That travel deals often aren't really deals. Several sties, such as DealAngel and DealBase, have tried to make businesses of out vetting deals, but they never got really far.

We've yet to see the same level of excitement for local tours, activities, and events startups from consumers as we did from investors over the last few years. SideTour's unnamed purchase price is likely low, but it's also likely a sigh of relief for its investors and employees.